Food is a big part of our lives, it gives us energy, it brings friends and family together, and most of all it does not judge you. It just looks at you and says, “Eat me friend, I am here for you”
Then, I and the food, run across a field at each other in slow motion, meeting in the middle, gazing at one another as if finally meeting your… Ok this has gone on long enough.
In my mind it looks something like this
Ok, back to the point of this post.
It has become very trendy to try and eat all natural and organic foods. These foods are supposedly healthier for you, due to the fact that they have not been injected with HGH and other meat enhancing drugs, or MEDs* for short, and the fact that they cost more than ordinary foods. As we all know, the more it costs the better it is.
When you see ‘all natural’ you may think it is the same as buying organic. Natural means it should be from nature and nature does not use HGH and pesticides. Organic means coming from living matter. They both sound the same. So are they?
Not if you ask the USDA. The USDA has two very different criteria for what qualifies as natural and what is organic.
Natural
The term natural is meant to imply that the food was minimally processed and does not contain manufactured ingredients. The thing is, the government does not have a specific definition of the term natural and does not regulate the use of the term on products.
Not Allowed
Artificial colors or flavors, artificial preservatives, and irradiated products/ingredients.
Allowed
Pesticides and herbicides, GMOs, antibiotics, and growth hormones.
If GMOs and growth hormones are allowed in production then natural foods do not sound all that natural. Added to that is the fact that they are loosely regulated and no one has to tell how the food/animals were raised.
USDA Certified Organic
The term organic is well defined you can read it here if you want the nitty gritty of it.
Here is the short and sweet of what needs to be fulfilled to get a USDA Organic sticker on your products.
– No human sewage fertilizer used for animal feeds or plants
– No synthetic chemicals
– Farmland has to be free from prohibited synthetic chemicals
– No GMOs, Antibiotics, Growth Hormones
– Animals must be on pasture for pasture season
– Organic products separated from non- certified products
– Undergo on-site inspections
Putting It All Together
If you plan on spending money on so called, ‘all natural’ foods, then save and just buy generic. At least you know that they are not putting crap in your food. There is a chance that the company that puts ‘all natural’ on their products is actually following the loose set of guidelines that is not regulated by any second party. I mean hell, food companies are known for their honesty after all.
If you are trying to eat organic then make sure it is USDA certified organic. This is the gold standard in organic food. Don’t waste your money on foods that claim to be all natural. Either buy the generic or spend a little more and get the good stuff. Don’t pay more by straddling the fence on so called all natural foods.
Best
Josh Williams
*This is a made up acronym so do not think that MED stand for Meat Enhancing Drugs
